Jailing Russia’s Mayors

It’s the summer of mayors in Russia. That’s right: mayors. Those unalluring, often block shaped, overwhelmingly male, cheap suited, bottom feeders in Putin’s power vertical. Their goings-on usually fly under the radar of Russia watchers, especially in the West. Journalists and pundits, myself included, tend to aim high when it comes to ‘figuring out’ Russia. Putin, his inner circle, oligarchs, and other power elites concentrated in Moscow—this is the real stuff of politics. Mayors and their local bailiwicks, well, just don’t figure into the equation.

Focusing too intently on the commanding heights, however, can easily lead to mistaking the grand oaks for the forest. A lot has been going on in Russia’s political hinterlands. The Kremlin and its Investigative Committee have been wielding mighty axes in the regions, felling mayors like trees as part of Putin’s anti-corruption campaign. There’s a house cleaning of city managers. Many of these criminal indictments of mayors are totally legitimate. Many are examples of selective justice: corrupt but also politically advantageous. Others might be fabricated. Mayors are easy targets. Corruption is rife in the regions. Often stuck between a rock and hard place mayors often turn to corruption simply to get things done. Unlike federal officials, mayors are subject to their constituencies, making local elections one of the few places where real politics matter in Russia, and thus the soft underbelly of Putin’s rule.

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There’s a new political contest emerging Volgograd. No it’s not for votes, though it might give someone a slight edge in the next election. The contest in question is which local politician is willing to donate the most organs.

Here’s a murder you probably won’t hear about in the Western press. Grigory Nosikov, 48, was found dead on Wednesday of stab wounds outside the gates of his house, which is located in the Naro-Fominsk district some 60 miles west of Moscow. Nosikov was not a journalist, oppositionist, or a human rights activist. If he was you would probably know his name and his life by heart by now. But no. Nosikov was a member of United Russia and deputy of the town council in Kubinka. Nosikov was also the owner of the Zalesye transportation company, and according to police, it was this, not his politics, which most likely led to his doom.

Nosikov is one of several deputies who have been murdered over the years. According to Argumenty i fakty, being a Russian deputy is a risky job. Not counting those in Ingushetia and Chechnya (which would make the list much, much longer), the weekly lists twenty four city and state parliamentary members who have been murdered since 1992. Twelve of them have been killed since Putin came onto the political scene. Interestingly, killing a elected official doesn’t seem to carry anymore weight than normal murder. Police have filed Nosikov’s killing under “murder” as outlined in part one of article 105 in the Russian Criminal Code. The penalty is a maximum 15 years in prison.

According toMoskovskii komsomolets, Nosikov’s murder occurred just after he and his partner, Ekaterina, returned home last Wednesday. She went into the house; Nosikov stayed behind to close the gate. “When the businessman got out of the car, the murder ran up to the courtyard and hit the politician over the head. After the deputy fell to the ground unconscious, the villain (negodiai) started stabbing him with a knife.”

People who knew Nosikov say that he was a “self-made” man. A former tank soldier and Afghan veteran, he and his partner started a business called the Kubin Bus Park, which began transporting passengers around the backwaters of the Odintsovsk region. His business soon expanded to include selling cars and transporting people in the neighboring Naro-Fominsk district. “But here Nosikov ran into problems” reports MK.

Business became difficult, says one source, once Noskiov entered the Naro-Fominsk market. His success was paid in becoming a target of “threats and demands that pull back his business” by the local mafia.

The mafia. No, really? In Putin’s Russia where United Russia dominates the political and economic scene? Aren’t deputies like Nosikov supposed to be the fleecers and not the fleeces? So much for that supposed power, prestige, and protection that comes from being a member and deputy for United Russia.